Trip Report:

I really hate it when people make me look bad. Case and Point: Benjamin Knowles and his super-fancy Honeymoon on St. John website. They were there about 2 months after we were in 2004. Seeing his site has prompted me to finally update this one with a bit more information about our itinerary.

Day 1: June 20th, 2004 - Miami

Believe me, we really didn't want to spend the first night of our honeymoon in a crappy airport hotel in Miami, but after American cancelled our flight into St. Thomas that's what we were forced to do.

Day 2: June 21st, 2004 - St. Thomas

Up at 4 AM for the second day in a row (technically 1 AM if you include the time change), we dragged ourselves onto the plane and made in to St. Thomas. As much as I'd like to whine about the delay, we quickly found out that we were much better off than some of our fellow travellers - one woman was trying to get to her daughter's wedding, which was starting in an hour! The taxi driver was unsympathetic, and she eventually bailed out to try get a private taxi. Our taxi driver was again a shining piece of humanity as he tried to fast-talk some other passengers on their baggage charge and raise it after the fact. These poor souls were busy trying to play catch-up with their cruise ship after delayed flights and a couple missed connections, but they weren't taking any crap from him. Actually it was the most enjoyable taxi ride I've ever had.

The rest of the day we mostly spent hanging out around the Morningstar by Marriott, including a much-needed nap in our room. As annoyingly touristy as it was I did enjoy the happy hour at Frenchman's Reef as we watched the cruise ships leave harbour, mostly because I'm a big fan of those fruity, blended rum drinks. Especially when they are free.

Day 3: June 22nd, 2004 - St. Thomas

This was our only full day on St. Thomas, but it ended up being enough for us. We did a "walking tour" of Charlotte Amalie, and snagged a fake Prada purse for Juniper from one of the street vendors. Then it was the tram up to Paradise Point for some lunch and a lovely view of the bay. Back to the Morningstar for some time on the beach and our couple's massage - unfortunately we had to do the couple's massage indoors - and in separate rooms - since it was too late in the day and the beach would have been buggy. We finished up the day with a super-tasty dinner at Tavern on the Beach, which is the Morningstar restaurant

Day 4: June 23rd, 2004 - St. Thomas and St. John

This was the day we were scheduled to head over to St. John, but since we couldn't get into our villa until late afternoon we decided to spend the morning at Magen's Bay on St. Thomas. This was a beautiful beach, and rather quiet - I don't think any of the cruise ship passengers had made it over yet as we arrived fairly early in the day. Then we made our way to Red Hook, and took the ferry over to Cruz Bay. We grabbed our rental car, hit the Starfish Market, and then it was on to our villa, La Sirena. What a beautiful villa it was, and we settled in for a nice home-cooked meal before heading off to bed in one of the downstairs bedrooms. And that was when our own personal hell began. Because frankly, neither Juniper nor I deal very well with trying to sleep in a sauna - and that's what it felt like with the meager ceiling fan and total lack of breeze which we got on that side of the house.

Day 5: June 24th, 2005 - St. John

We awoke bleary-eyed, but eager to start this new phase of our vacation. We loaded up the Suziki Vitara-mobile and headed off to the Annaberg ruins. From there we took a stroll along a trail to Francis Bay and settled in for some proper relaxation. Then it was off to Cinnamon Bay. This is what a vacation should be like. We rounded off the day with a stroll around Cruz Bay, and then to the Stone Terrace for dinner. This is one of those places that hasn't gotten the best reviews but that we really enjoyed. It was just a lovely spot, with a nice view of the harbour and very nice staff. I don't remember what I ate, but it was tasty. Then it was home to try to figure out a better way to sleep. We opted for the windward bedroom - big mistake. It was like a windstorm in our room, with the blinds banging around, the door clattering about and rain streaming in the windows. What the heck? So peaceful by day, La Sirena was caught in a windstorm pretty much every night we were there. It was beginning to look like we wouldn't get much sleep our entire honeymoon, and not in a good way!

Day 6: June 25th, 2005 - St. John

We woke up early, and headed for Trunk Bay. We wanted to beat the crowds, and it was a good thing we did. We had the beach pretty much to ourselves for a couple hours until it became overrun with tourists from the cruise ships on St. Thomas (not to mention if you get there early enough you get in free). After a lovely morning of sunning and snorkelling we headed to Skinny Legs for lunch. Everybody raves about Skinny Legs and their burgers, but it really didn't do it for me. I really wanted to like the place, and I'm a fan of dive bars, but this one just didn't jive with me. Oh well.

We spent a nice afternoon back at our villa by the pool, and cooked up some flank steaks on the grill. We really weren't looking forward to trying to get to sleep though, until we realized that there was a decent ceiling fan in the living room. I went downstairs, nabbed a mattress off one of the beds, and hauled it up to the living room. And that was where we slept the rest of the nights, on the floor of the living room. We got just enough breeze from the fan, and we were able to shut enough windows to keep the wind noise down to a tolerable level. Crazy!

Day 7: June 26th, 2005 - St. John

We spent the morning at La Sirena, before heading to Caneel Bay for the famous lunch buffet. Now that's what I call lunch! I stuffed myself as much as I dared knowing I had to spend the rest of the day in a bathing suit. They had pretty much everything you could ask for, but it wasn't cheap. But heck, this was our honeymoon and we weren't paying! (check out The Honeymoon gift registry service). I made a trip to the bathroom, and talk about heaven - air conditioning! I could have spent all afternoon in there, but I think Juniper might have gotten worried. We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the beaches at Caneel, including Caneel, Salomon and Honeymoon Beaches. Then it was back to La Sirena for another home cooked meal.

Day 8: June 27th, 2005 - St. John

We headed down to Cinnamon Bay, which we'd visited before. This time we were there for a kayak excursion, which was a lot of fun. We rented a two-person kayak and paddled from Cinnamon over to Maho Bay, up Francis Bay and just across Mary Point over to Whistling Cay. The snorkelling was superb, especially along Mary Point, with just an insanely dense population of pretty fishes. The paddle back from Whistling Cay to Cinnamon was a bit hectic, but it doesn't hurt to get a little bit of a workout in. Besides, rain doesn't matter so much when you are already in the water. After cleaning up we grabbed dinner at the Fish Trap, and then back to the villa for bed.

Day 9: June 28th, 2005 - St. John

Today was the Reef Bay Hike, one of the more popular hikes on St. John. We opted not to do the guided tour by the National Parks Service after hearing it was a slow-moving affair. This quickly proved to be a good decision as we passed a couple dozen bored looking hikers on our way down the trail. The trail is pretty much straight down to the beach, and then straight up all the way back, making for a challenging little hike. We passed the Reef Bay Sugar Mill on the way down, but the swimming at Reef Bay itself wasn't very tempting. After we marched back up it was over to Salt Pond Bay in my continuing quest for the elusive stingrays and sea turtles. That night we caught a sunset dinner at Chateau Bordeaux, perched atop Bordeaux Mountain. A great spot with a great view, we looked south out over the island.

Day 10: June 29th, 2005 - St. John

Today it was back to Trunk Bay for some relaxation, then Jumbie Beach where we got rained on. After drying off we headed to Hawksnest Bay, where we spent quite a bit of time. This was a lovely spot, and one of Juniper's favourites. We spent some time in the afternoon at La Sirena, and then back to the Fish Trap for an early bird special for dinner. We figured this was one of the better deals in Cruz Bay if you got there for the early bird meals.

Day 11: June 30th, 2005 - St. John

Only 2 days left, and this is when you realy start to feel sad that the honeymoon is ending. Lucky for us we were still struggling to get a good night's sleep, and so at least we had that to look forward to when we got back home. Juniper wasn't feeling great, but we headed out to Waterlemon, and she hung out by the beach while I snorkelled the cay. That's about where I almost ran over a Sea Turtle, who decided to generally frolic and what not about 5 feet away from me. This was my first ever turtle sighting, so I was pretty stoked - I followed him for a good 15 minutes, before heading back to brag to Juniper. This was also my first barracuda sighting which was kind of cool too. Great snorkelling overall. From there it was back to Salt Pond for another unsuccesful hunt for stingrays, and where I grabbed a quick snack at Franks 'n Tings. Then back to the villa and some snacks for dinner.

Day 12: July 1st, 2005 - St. John

We decided to start the day off close to home, and walked down to Kiddle Bay which we had a good view of from our deck. This is a rocky bay, and after a couple fishermen left we had the entire place to ourselves. Not a bad place to snorkel either, as we saw a school of reef squid! These dudes were super cool, and there must have been about 30 of them. You couldn't mistake them for anything other than squid since some of them were facing backwards (relative to the others) as they all swam in the same direction. It was back to the villa for lunch, before one last trip to Hawksnest. Here I finally was victorious as the stingray described in St. John: Feet, Fins & Four-Wheel Drive made an appearance. He patrolled the beach until a few gawkers got too close and he ran away. Sweet little guy. Then we were back to the Stone Terrace for dinner, and home to pack. :-(

Day 13: July 2nd, 2005 - St. John and Home

Thirteen really was our unlucky number here, as we headed home. Our flight was too early to really do anything but head for the ferry, and then for the airport. We made it to St. Thomas in time for lunch, and for some strange reason ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. I don't know why we do it to ourselves sometimes. At least we had a good night's sleep that night.

Final Thoughts:

Well, what can I say but that we loved St. John. And since I'm writing this September 2005 I can reveal that we've already booked to go back this year. It was a beautiful place, quiet and peaceful and with just amazing water and great snorkelling. We like the quiet places (which is why we go to Kauai when we head to Hawaii), and St. John didn't fail to live up to any of our high expectations. There isn't much to do besides swim, snorkel and hike, but that's kind of the way we like it. We really enjoyed being closer to Coral Bay, and we really enjoyed La Sirena during the day too. However, at night we were just dying for some A/C, or at least some good fans. It also kind of creeped us out that to get to the bedrooms you had to go outside, and down a narrow spiral staircase in the pitch black. Just something to keep in mind since a lot of the villas are like that. It wouldn't have been so bad going outside if it was all on the same level. It had a great pool area and patio, but we wouldn't stay there again.

Other People's St. John Trip Reports:

• Benjamin and Lara Knowles - August/September 2004
• Jonathan and Jaime Claxton - September 2005